-- - - -- - .G ... :> \ ,, , ' "'. '\ , -' r'I (:; ---- "\ ì ); d ., f) THE TWIRL WATCH N 0- N N I.() N N CO CO .. 'u u ::> 0) ...c: <I) , . I ! I I , " , \ \ \ , \ "- \ I I . I WO ' ' MISTAKE IS ' NIT · ' Z3 I SOf ' f f lm J I m f fllM m ll m I lm wlm m filM Il fllM m m / m f II . J m f m l m Ill I r ' m . M' M Ill lm m J l M fm G JIM mH · P: : m Mf f WJJm mM M m THr: m Hlm S RIINP ml M m PRDD I m m m m m 1"1 '-_'-:,u ';.':: IP N IN SELECT THEATRES. DECEMBER 27 DlRml m Hm i i I::::II:::I IXJ= www.foxsearchhght.com nLlliED ",",'"HCENlUUrox """.._;_._ O. .0. I , 36 THE NEW YORKER, DECEMBER 25, 2006 & JANUARY I, 2007 ----- .....,. o ing sudden decrescendo, a half-hour-Iong return to order that is one of the most stirring adventures in banal sublimity ever committed to film. In French and Portuguese.-Richard Brody (MOMA; Dec. 28 and Dec. 30.) THE QUEEN The new Stephen Frears film considers the deadlock, both grieving and comical, that followed the death of the Princess of Wales, in 1997, On the one hand, the Queen (Helen Mirren), believing it to be a pri- vate matter, stays and broods in Scotland with the Duke of Edinburgh (James Cromwell) and Prince Charles (Alex Jennings). On the other hand, Tony Blair (Michael Sheen), sensing a thirst for public mourning and thus a unique political opportunity, urges Her Majesty to return to London and face down the mob. And so she does; the crux of the drama comes when Mirren turns to the crowd out- side Buckingham Palace and, with one smile, quashes any prospect of rebellion. The script, by Peter Mor- gan, relies largely on well-grounded speculation, and sticklers for accuracy will find the whole thing stray- ing beyond belief; but, thanks to the careful perfor- mances, you subscribe all too readily to the movie's suggestion of a divided land-of a Britain caught between the trustworthy stiffness of tradition and a liberalism that is open not just to emotional hon- esty but to the coarseness of modern excess. With Helen McCrory as a distinctly unceremonious Che- rie Blair.-A.L. (10/9/06) (In wide release.) THE SECRET LIFE OF WORDS Isabel Coixet directs this restrained drama, in which Hanna (Sarah Polley), an ascetic hearing-impaired factory worker, is forced to take a holiday, which she promptly forsakes to work as a nurse for a tempo- rarily blind burn victim, Josef (Tim Robbins), on an oil rig in the Irish Sea. Although Coixet's distracting use of sound and music sets a disjointed tone, the persistent isolation of the few habitants of the rig en- hances the gradual development of the relationship between the damaged Hanna and the angry, helpless Josef. The dual elements of terror and romance at the core of the story are realized beautifully by the two leads: Polley, as an empty shell of a person, and Robbins, as a feeling, sensitive man, bring to life a pair of lost souls attempting to live with untold past horrors.-Shauna Lyon (Quad Cinema.) STRANGER THAN FICTION The existence of Harold Crick (Will Ferrell) is of no interest, even to Harold Crick. He works for the In- ternal Revenue Service, never takes vacations, and al- ways cleans his teeth with the same number of brush- strokes. His life is described to us, in crisp female voice-over; little by little, we realize that Harold him- self is listening to the voice, and that he is something even worse than dull. He is fictional, a character in a novel, and the narrator is in fact his creator, Karen Eiffel (Emma Thompson), who is trying to find a way to kill him off. Moviegoers already exhausted by "Being John Malkovich" and "Adaptation" may wince at such a conceit, but the screenwriter, Zach Helm, and the director, Marc Forster, pull it off- they actually work through the comic implications of the setup, including the idea that it may not turn out funny after all. (Harold is devastated when he reads the manuscript of his story and understands that, in the name of art, he must indeed expire.) Dustin Hoffman is in relaxed and winning fonn as the literature professor to whom the hero takes his problem, and Maggie Gyllenhaal is the free spirit who thaws his iced-up heart. The ending may be mush, but the rest of Forster's movie has surprising bite.-A.L. (In wide release.) VENUS Doing the "Grumpy Old Men" routine alongside several other showmen of his vintage, Peter O'Toole is as sly as ever as Maurice Russell, an aging and ailing actor who is a bit less grumpy than his friends, especially when it comes to Jessie (Jodie Whittaker), a provincial girl of twenty who moves in with her fussy great-uncle Ian, Maurice's best friend. About to go in for a prostate operation and in need of feminine comfort, Maurice makes the uncouth, slatternly young woman the near- est target for his seductions. Whittaker soldiers on bravely as the would-be Galatea, and Vanessa Redgrave, as his struggling ex-wife, whom he had left years earlier for a younger woman, is plau- . I",